1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a tape printing device for printing an image such as characters on a tape-like member, and more particularly to a tape printing device capable of setting an appropriate margin between one edge of a tape-like member and a print start position and between the other edge of the tape-like member and a print end position.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, tape printing devices for making a lettering tape for transferring an image, such as characters and symbols, printed on the tape to an image transferred material, such as paper and cloth, used by causing the printed side of the lettering tape and the image transferred material to confront and rubbing the non-printed side of the lettering tape have been proposed. Generally, in the conventional tape printing devices, the lettering tape is made by printing characters on a base tape for lettering having a special adhesive layer on the surface where the characters are printed through an ink ribbon. The surface of the base tape for lettering is processed such that the printed characters are easily attached thereon when they are printed and the characters are easily transferred to the image transferred material by rubbing the non-printed side of the lettering tape.
A base tape for lettering which is printed in the above tape printing device, especially a tape printing device having a thermal printing mechanism, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,509.
Moreover, another type of lettering tape printed by the tape printing device is an iron-on print tape. The characters printed on the iron print tape are transferred to the image transferred material, such as cloth, by confronting the printed side of the iron print tape with the image transferred material and heating the non-printed side of the iron print tape by the iron or other heat source. Such an iron print tape is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-292187 which was published on Dec. 24, 1991.
Further, as the base tapes for the pressure lettering tape and for the iron-on print have special surfaces, they must be handled with care. A tape feeding mechanism for the handling of these types of tapes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,976,558, 5,069,557 and 5,168,814. The lettering tape can be made with the tape printing device having a thermal printing mechanism by the above identified tape feeding mechanism.
The object of such lettering tapes is to transfer character images printed on the lettering tape to an image transferred material, such as paper and cloth. Therefore, it is necessary to set a large margin at one end, or both ends, of the tape in order for the user to hold the tape on the image transferred material during the transferring operation.
However, the conventional tape printing device does not consider setting the special margin for these specialized tapes, such as the lettering tape, even if it has a margin setting function. Therefore, it is necessary to set the margin for the specialized tapes when the image is printed thereon after an image has been printed on a tape other than the specialized tape, the other tape having a narrow or no margin. Further, when an image is printed again on a tape other than the special tape, the necessary margin must be set again. Thus, it is necessary to set the margin each time the tape cassette is changed which is very troublesome.